Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun German Demo

Agatha Christie’s detective novels are some of the most bestselling book series ever published, which is even more impressive when you consider the fact that there have been dozens released over the years. Naturally, the cases and the mystery featured in the books have been adapted into various other works of art, including movies and video games.

Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun is a classic point-and-click adventure game in which you get to play as Hercule Poirot and try to figure out the clues behind a murder. Captain Hastings is also part of the investigation, since he is actually the one nudging Poirot in the right direction every once in a while. Other than the interesting theme, the game is nothing more than a basic puzzle solver.

Hence, your main tasks involve noticing certain clues, searching for specific items and evidence pieces, as well as talking with various characters to find out more about what exactly transpired around the time of the murder. The user interface is about as simple as it can get, with the only thing required of you being a few clicks once in a while and a lot of attention.

Although simplicity is admirable and welcomed in most cases, it can also be regarded as laziness when the technology to make something better is within reach, but not utilized. Thus, the mechanics are very old and somewhat clunky, making you feel like you do not really have a say in what happens on the screen. It also distracts you from the story, which is at least decent.

Not only that, but the visual presentation is amateur at best, especially in the case of the cutscenes presenting the story in between the gameplay sessions. The character animations deserve a special mention for themselves, because they are incredibly bad and never in sync. Thus, you have to let go of a lot of things just to hear the story until the end, which may not be worth it for most people.

In the end, regardless of how attractive the prospect of being part of an Agatha Christie detective story, Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun is just not the title to provide it for you. Hence, the hefty amount of annoyances and lack of polishing are just too much bother to be worth the trouble. On the other hand, the story is really nice, so it certainly wins some points there.